Movie Review: The Frankenstein Theory

[This is the twentieth selection in my irregular, “My Wife and Kids are Visiting Relatives and I’m Home Watching Movies” film festival.]

Hey – a found footage movie! I haven’t seen one of those in, like, hours!

In this particular case a disgraced professor hires a documentary film team to follow him to the unpopulated wilds of the Yukon territories in an attempt to prove the theory behind his life’s work. After years of research he believes that story of “Frankenstein” is not only true, but that the monster is still alive and roaming the artic fringes.

As bored as I (and I assume everyone else) is getting of found footage films I can’t speak against this one too harshly. The basic premise is actually pretty clever. Basing the story, realistically, on the Frankenstein novel rather than the popular conception was risky but intriguing. True, it may have been the only interesting original idea in the movie, but credit where credit is due: it was a good one.

Everything else plays out exactly as you would expect. After some delaying interview stops to set personalities – the driven professor, the level-headed host, the smart ass sound man, the mousy camera man and so forth – we’re introduced to the last piece of the puzzle: the overly serious wilderness guide. Our group, newly introduced conflict points in tow, head off on snowmobiles into the wild, white yonder.

The movie has a very slow burn, which is actually good because once “the monster” is introduced it all goes into super-deluxe-hyper-cliché mode. Until then, however, I must confess that I was enjoying this. The acting was surprisingly high quality as were the technical aspects. Had they tried something as clever with the ending as with the premise it might have easily risen above “average”.